Professor Sir Robert Burgess, Vice-Chancellor, University of Leicester

Robert Burgess is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester (a post he has held for ten years) and Chair of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), the Higher Education Academy, the Research Information Network, the UUK/Guild HE Teacher Education Advisory Group and the Managing Information Across Partners HE Group.  He is a member of the British Library Board and an Academician of the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences.  He is currently chairing the UUK/Guild HE implementation group on the Higher Education Achievement Report and Degree Classifications on which he has produced three reports.

He has been President of the British Sociological Association, President of the Association for the Teaching of the Social Sciences, Founding Chair of the UK Council for Graduate Education and has been a member of the Council and Chair of the Postgraduate Training Board of the Economic and Social Research Council.  He has also been Chair of the East Midlands Universities Association and Honorary Secretary of the Society for Research in Higher Education.

He was previously Senior Pro Vice Chancellor, Director of CEDAR (Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research) and Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick.

His main publications include:

Experiencing Comprehensive Education (1983), In the Field: An Introduction to Field Research (1984), Education, Schools and Schooling (1985), Sociology, Education and Schools (1986), Schools at Work (1988 with Rosemary Deem), Implementing In-Service Education and Training (1993 with John Connor, Sheila Galloway, Marlene Morrison and Malcolm Newton), Research Methods (1993) and Reflections of the University of Leicester (2010 with Joanne Wood) together with over twenty-four edited volumes on qualitative methods and education.

Abstract

Exploring Assessment in Higher Education: from Policy to Practice

This keynote presentation examines ways in which student achievements are recorded and ways in which new systems can be developed.  Drawing on research and development work in assessment, the presentation will focus on the policy debate surrounding degree classification and discuss how this has been linked to the development of a Higher Education Achievement Report.  The author draws directly on his experience of chairing national groups over the last eight years that have pioneered these developments.  Finally, parallels are drawn with the development of the Learning Records Service and the potential to link the student record from school and college through university and on to lifelong learning – another development in which the author has been directly involved.